TOBACCO contract sales have pushed up the total bales sold to 1 239 213 bales on 20 April 2023, a 16.78% increase from the 1 061 112 bales sold on the corresponding day last year.
PRISCA TSHUMA
According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), the contract floors sold 1 116 879 out of the 1 137 536 bales delivered, with only 20 657 bales rejected, while the auction floors sold 122 334 out of 137 535 bales laid with 15 201 bales rejected.
Tobacco contract farmers earned US$265 million, far much higher than producers of the golden leaf who sold on the auction floors for US$26.4 million. The total value was US$291 million, 21.77% above the US$239 million recorded on the same day last year.
However, total rejected bales were 20.8% up at 35 858 on Thursday from 29 684 recorded on the same day last year.
As a result, the total rejection percentage increased by 3.39 percentage points from 2.72% registered last year to 2.81% on the same day this year. Despite this, the two sold a total mass of 97 469 395kg, which was 21.11% above the 80 481 355kg sold on the same day last year.
On contract floors, the average price for the golden leaf was US$3/kg with US$6.10/kg being the highest price and US$0.10/kg being the lowest price.
On the other hand, the auction floors pegged the leaf at US$2.92/kg as the average price with US$4.99/kg being the highest price and US$0.10/kg as the lowest price.
Together the average price for the day was 0.38% higher at US$2.99/kg against the US$2.98/kg pegged on the same day last year.
The total highest price was 6.15% lower from US$6.50/kg pegged last year to US$6.10/kg pegged on the same day this year.
Meanwhile, the lowest price registered remained the same at US$0.10 for both 2023 and 2022. The total average bale weight for the day was 79kg, a 3.49% increase from 76kg registered last year.
